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The Curved Sword and the Hungry Hammer
The Curved Sword and the Hungry Hammer A Yaqeli history commonly told by their qashaqi Shekmet's devotion Long, long ago, back when Doviraan was young and gnöbs roamed Whirn, the great kingdom of Geh’b Yaqel was naught but a smattering of tribes in the desert. They had lived there for as long as anybody could remember, and were almost always at war with one another. These constant battles were pleasing to the war god Kuluk, but no Yaqeli skirmish was ever as grand as the wars that had happened elsewhere in the world between entire countries, and not just tribes. Shekmet the Baqhab thought that if he could unite the Yaqeli tribes into one army and lead them into war, Kuluk would be even more pleased. Ever since he was young, Shekmet knew it was his destiny to do something great in the name of Kuluk. After all, he was born with blond streaks in his hair, signifying Kuluk’s favor upon him. Shekmet wanted to be honored in the Heavenly Oasis, Alajalah, when he died, so he started to concoct a plan to lead the Yaqeli into the most spectacular war Kuluk had ever seen. To the south, across the Oshin Sea, Doviraan was at war to legitimize their independence from the lost kingdom of Arthos, and they were winning by sheer force of numbers. Arthos was more advanced, but Doviraan was vast, and their knights were extremely skilled. Shekmet knew Arthos would eventually lose this war if they continued without help, so he came to them with an offer. He told the Arthosians that if they helped him unite the Yaqeli tribes into one kingdom, he would in turn help them by attacking Doviraan from the north. The Arthosians thought it a wonderful proposal, but they had no troops to spare for Shekmet. Instead, they thought of a different way to help him unite the Yaqeli. Shashrukhan, the Sunbreaker Aneos, the most masterful smith in all of Arthos, took the claw of an ancient beast and forged it into a brilliant scimitar, which he named Helioclast, the Sunbreaker. It was clear as glass, hard as steel, and whatever it cut it lit on fire. Aneos presented the Sunbreaker to Shekmet for him to use to unite his land, but the Yaqeli man hesitated. The blade of the sword was curved, making it asymmetrical, and it was high blasphemy to kill a man with a weapon that did not mirror itself like Kuluk intended. Doing so might even bar the fallen Baqhab from entering Alajalah. Shekmet weighed the blasphemy of using the curved sword against the glory of leading every Yaqeli Baqhab into battle, and found that he believed it was worth the price. Taking the blade, he thanked Aneos, and travelled back to the desert and his tribe. Once he was home, Shekmet began taking control of neighboring tribes by ruthless force, incinerating any who opposed him with his burning blade of blasphemous asymmetry. Those who would join him he let live, but they remained very afraid of his awesome power. Word spread throughout the land that a godless usurper was slaughtering Baqhabi from tribe after tribe with a curved blade of glass and fire, which became known to the Yaqeli as Shashrukhan. Nobody could match its power, and as Shekmet’s armies grew, people began to be very worried. Gaq'nanti consults the Devourer A man named Gaq’nanti who lived in the east heard the stories of Shekmet and Shashrukhan. Most people were scared by this blasphemous man, but Gaq’nanti knew that if he fought a blond-streaked Baqhab who was using a profane blade, Kuluk’s favor would be upon himself. However, he could not deny Shashrukhan’s power to kill, and he had no weapon to match it. Seeking aid, he travelled east into the mountains to consult Agrakarga, the Devourer. When he finally reached Agrakarga’s abyss, he called down to the beast. “Great Devourer,” he said, “my name is Gaq’nanti, and I come in the name of Kuluk. There is a usurper in the west who is killing Baqhabi with an unholy sword of terrible might which no man can match. I seek the power to confront this foe and defeat him in Kuluk’s holy name!” “Man,” the Devourer replied, “I have no stake in the activities of your kind, but Kuluk is a friend of mine, and the preservation of his honor is a cause for which I will provide assistance. Take one of my myriad mouths, and forge it into any weapon you see fit.” “Blessings be upon you, oh great Agrakarga!” said Gaq’nanti to the abyss, “I will not take this gift from you in vain! Jakarakaj qo Alajala Takat!” With a mouth of Agrakarga the Devourer in his arms, Gaq’nanti hiked back to his smithy in his village. He spent seventy days and seventy nights working tirelessly on the mouth at his forge, but on the seventy-first day he emerged, carrying the hammer he had crafted. It was as long as a man is tall, and the head was perfectly symmetrical in three ways and black as night. The head was as large as a newborn child, and along each face were concentric rows of dark green, twisted teeth. Gaq’nanti named his hammer Droghord Fleshrend. Gaq'nanti challenges Shekmet Now that Gaq’nanti had a weapon capable of challenging Shashrukhan, he headed west with his tribe to face Shekmet. When he finally reached Shekmet’s armies, he called out to them. “Why are you following this evil blasphemer? Can’t you see he is locking godly Baqhabi out of the Heavenly Oasis with his sword? I am Gaq’nanti, reverent servant of Kuluk. Join me and help me fight Shekmet!” But none of the Baqhabi who heard him joined him, for all were afraid to die by blasphemous fire and not be allowed to enter Alajalah. When Shekmet heard Gaq’nanti’s shouting, he grew angry, for he believed he was working for Kuluk’s favor. He did not enjoy wielding a curved blade, but the rewards in Alajalah for leading a grand Yaqeli army to war against Doviraan were worth the cost. Gaq’nanti, like so many others, was accusing him of being godless and evil, but what did they truly know of him? Shekmet would show this man death by glass and fire like so many others before him. Gaq’nanti led his smaller group of loyal Baqhabi in a charge against the larger army, and for the first time, he swung Droghord Fleshrend at a foe. The hammer connected with the enemy Baqhab’s chest, and in a flash of black energy, the man’s ribs were torn open by invisible fangs, his heart and lungs almost fully consumed. Gaq’nanti dropped Baqhab after Baqhab, each with a gnashing bite tearing their body open, and most of them were dead before they hit the ground. Shekmet saw his men being eaten alive by his enemy’s weapon, and was horrified. He called his armies to retreat, and ran as fast as he could away from the hideous appetite of Gaq’nanti’s hammer. Gaq’nanti ran after him, destroying half of Shekmet’s army before they managed to escape him. Finding sanctuary in a cave, they prayed to Kuluk that Gaq’nanti would not find them, and to their relief, they saw Gaq’nanti give up chase, turn around, and walk back to his own tribe. Shekmet is conflicted Shekmet sat on the floor of the cave, holding Shashrukhan is his arms. All night long, he sat still, pondering the losses his army had taken against one man. His hammer seemed to match the power of Shashrukhan, and he also thought he was doing what was right and pleasing to Kuluk. How could two men with the same goal in mind go to war against each other in defense of it? Shekmet finally came to a conclusion. This man, Gaq’nanti, was unable to make the sacrifice needed to bring Kuluk the most glory. However, upon examining himself further, Shekmet was distraught to discover that though he was willing to commit blasphemy in pursuit of the glory of Kuluk, he was unwilling to sacrifice the lives of half the Baqhabi in the land. How could he lead an army against Doviraan if half that army died in its conception? No, Shekmet had to put Kuluk’s interest before his own. If Shekmet was the one to lead that army, it would be mutinous and afraid. They would never truly follow a man they saw as a blasphemer. Crying, Shekmet hid Shashrukhan, Helioclast, the Sunbreaker, away under the ground. Hopefully at some point in the future, someone would be able to use it to unite the tribes of the Yaqeli, but Shekmet could not be that man. Arthos would lose and be forced to recognize Doviraan’s independence, and Shekmet could not provide them glorious support in that war. He had failed. The Yaqeli are polarized Far east of the cave where Shekmet was weeping, Gaq’nanti wept alike. He had killed so many men who were too afraid of their own leader to turn against him. Surely those Baquabi can’t all have thought favorably of Shekmet’s blasphemy? Gaq’nanti remembered how they had all run from him, terrified. What he had done was not battle, which would have pleased Kuluk. No, Gaq’nanti had murdered those men. No weapon which turned battle into murder could ever honor Kuluk, so Gaq’nanti hid Droghord Fleshrend away in a location nobody would ever be able to find it. Shekmet killed himself the next morning with the double-edged sword he wielded before having Shashrukhan, and his army found his body shortly afterward. Though they searched the cave thoroughly, they could not find Shashrukhan, for Shekmet had hidden it too well. Quickly, rumors began to spread that Gaq’nanti had stolen it for himself and killed Shekmet with his own sword. How dare Gaq’nanti destroy their friends on the battlefield in the name of Kuluk, only to take the blasphemous sword for himself! Similarly, Gaq’nanti’s tribe saw him weeping, and sympathized with what he felt. Shekmet’s blasphemy and Baqhabi must be defeated fairly in battle if it were to be pleasing to Kuluk. After Droghord Fleshrend had been hidden, Gaq’nanti returned to find his tribe making plans to raise an army against Shekmet, and he gladly agreed to help. And for the next thousand years, the rest of the Yaqeli tribes were convinced to join with one of the two growing armies, each claiming the others were the blasphemers. Eventually, all tribes of the Yaqeli desert were in allegiance with either Shekmet’s descendants or Gaq’nanti’s, and the knowledge of the cave where Shekmet hid Shashrukhan was lost. Over the next one thousand years, Arthos was destroyed, Trevignon and Valkavia rose to power in Whirn, and the Yaqeli became united against each other. Then, after a millennia of stalemate, a very unlucky man unearthed Shashrukhan. Khashav unearths Shashrukhan A descendant of Shekmet, a young man named Khashav, unearthed Shashrukhan while digging a foundation for the house he had planned to build. The Shekmeti man knew immediately what he had just uncovered and the destruction it could cause, so he kept it for himself, not telling anyone what he had found. He abandoned his construction effort and left with Shashrukhan wrapped in a fireproofed scarf to go to the front lines of the millennium long war against the Gaqi, descendants of Gaq'nanti and his army. Khashav was going to end the war once and for all. Though the battles were unceasing and tensions were high, Khashav knew that with his help and the help of his new weapon, the war could finally come to a close, so he devised a plan. He gathered around him a group of two dozen trustworthy Baqhabi, and laid his scarf-wrapped package in front of them. When he had unwrapped it, the men were stunned, and one threw his cloak over the gleaming translucent blade. The cloak burst into flames. The man who had thrown it stood and yelled at Khashav, “You found this blasphemous relic, and you bring it here to battle? What do you intend to do with it, kill the entire Gaqi army? No! This is a terrible evil, and you will bring Kuluk’s wrath upon us all. If Shekmet had this sword in his lands for all this time, the Gaqi are not blasphemers! Do you not see? Shekmet’s fate will befall us all!” Khashav picked the remaining charred tatters of the man’s cloak off of Shashrukhan and threw them aside. “What is your name Baqhabi?” “My name is A’kheban, son of Rayahkho, servant of Kuluk.” “A’kheban, I see that you are a good and honest man. One who does not abandon his passion for Kuluk or his honor. One who is not afraid to speak his mind. It is a shame I must bar you from entering Alajalah.” With one swift motion, Khashav grabbed Shashrukhan and plunged it through A’kheban’s chest. Before A’kheban could even gasp from shock or pain, his chest erupted into a tempest of flame, burning his body from the inside out. In a matter of seconds, all that was left of A’kheban was a charred skeleton and foul smoke. Khashav remained standing above the group of Baqhabi, who looked back at him with stunned, fearful eyes. Khashav's plan “Men,” he said, his calm voice an unnerving contrast to what he had just done. “I found this sword under sand and stone. I pulled it from the ground with my own hands. This sword that killed so many Gaqi. This sword that struck fear into the hearts of all those who dared defy Shekmet. This sword that was forged from the claw of a god and given as a gift to unite the Yaqeli. This sword whose unholy form means two deaths for any who fall to it, Shashrukhan, the Sunbreaker. My discovery of this sword was surely no accident. I tell you, Kuluk himself willed me to find it so I could bring it here and end this fighting! No, Gaq’nanti may not have stolen this sword after all, but he was searching for it, and he killed Shekmet when he refused to tell him where he hid it! My friends, don’t you see? Shekmet was redeemed, and now Kuluk gives me this weapon that we may avenge him and fulfill his dream! The Yaqeli will be united by blood and flame. Tomorrow we enter the battle as Kuluk’s chosen, and the next day we will be kings!” Khashav’s voice reached a thundering crescendo, and the Baqhabi around him listened in awe. They did not know that Khashav did not believe his own words. They did not know that Khashav wanted only power. They did not know that Khashav did not even worship Kuluk at all.